England | doug woods

Posts Tagged ‘England’

Education Just Cannot Win

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

Today is one of those days when, it seems, Education just cannot win. It’s the day when, in England, students receive the results of their A level examinations.

The significance of these results is that any student wishing to progress on to Higher Education will do so based upon the grades achieved in these examinations. So not getting the grades needed in these examinations, could mean that the student misses out on their chosen place at university.

Of course, teachers also get nervous at this time, hoping that their students have done well and achieved the grades they needed (or better). Schools, too, hope that the results of their students are good; good grades achieved by pupils makes it easier to attract new students to the school.

What often happens, though, is that if the grades achieved by students across the country are good, then people, well some people, well, actually, some newspapers and the people who read them, will say that the examinations are too easy. It seems strange that, in some people’s eyes, good grades don’t seem to be an indication of the quality and quantity of teaching and learning going on in schools; it only seems to be taken as an indication of a ‘dumbing down’ of the examination system.

Of course, if the grades across the country are poor, then the same newspapers and their readers start to claim that it is a reflection of poor teaching.

So, you see, whichever way it goes, today is a day education just cannot win. At least not in the eyes of the media. Behind the stories, though, are young adults whose futures could be, in part, determined by the outcomes of today; many of them will be successful and many will not. Let us hope that today is a day for celebrating for most students, their families, teachers and schools.

A-level results: stories from the chalkface (guardian.co.uk)
Pupils do better at school if teachers are not fixated on test results (guardian.co.uk)
Clearing 2010: Universities offer lifeline to top students (guardian.co.uk)
1 in 12 A-levels have new A* grade (independent.co.uk)
Clearing 2010: Demand for degree places adds to pressure on colleges (guardian.co.uk)
A-level results 2010: Live clearing advice (guardian.co.uk)
Cambridge University warns against A-levels reform plan (guardian.co.uk)

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Tags: A Level, Colleges and Universities, Education, Educators, England, GCE Advanced Level, Higher education, school, Student
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Keeping ICT Moving Forward

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

It was @DobeLou who tweeted one Sunday morning ‘Forward not backward in ICT’ with a link to her article by the same title. http://bit.ly/90AaWg . It is a phrase that echoes my own sentiments and, I feel certain, the sentiments of many others involved in ICT or Educational Technology in England.

You will notice that I say, England, in the previous paragraph, I do so without any intentional slight to colleagues in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland; I’m simply not sure what the situation is in those areas, with their different funding and organisational arrangements. I daresay, there are concerns there too but, initially anyway, the cuts seem to have hit English education hardest.

Currently, there is an atmosphere akin to despair mixed with confusion. Having pressed forward for many years in developing ICT and the use of technology in education, the country seems to be plunged suddenly backward by decisions (some might add indecisions) and actions taken by the new government.

Initially, it was claimed that the actions were taken owing to the financial situation left by the previous government. However, it soon became evident that the actions were based on other reasons. Money previously earmarked for school ICT was diverted to other areas, not quite sure how that ‘saved’ money, and it became clear that the new government had no policy position regarding supporting education with technology.

There are, however, hundreds of us at all levels of the profession who know and believe in the power and place of education technology. It is down to us to continue to press and support the work of ICT in education, to continue to demonstrate its effectiveness and to continue to explore new potential that it opens up.

I recall the very early days of educational computing, when no one believed in the place of computers in the classroom save for a few ‘pioneers’ and forward thinking ‘whizzkids’. It was a time when those of us who were ‘early’ adopters of the idea, would meet with fellow enthusiasts to share and discuss what we felt would be a revolution in education, (we were careful not to use such terms though). Perhaps now is the time to return to such an approach and the building blocks are already there via the Teachmeet movement, so long as we can get out of the ‘echo chamber’ and get our message across to a wider audience.

There are many aspects of educational technology nowadays that are different from those days in the 1980s when enthusiasts were meeting to share and to discuss ways forward. The biggest difference is that we now have a body of evidence on both good and poor practice in the use of educational technology. This has been built up over the intervening years and we can now use this evidence to justify our use of educational technology.

A problem remains, however, that all this evidence has never been fully collected and collated. Much of it exists in musty archives or in the minds and personal records of individuals. It would seem that now is the perfect time to attempt to draw this evidence together and to create a solid foundation of evidence upon which to base future development of educational technology.

To my mind, it would not matter that some of this evidence could support one particular approach to educational technology while other pieces of evidence could be used to support a different approach. Educational technology can be both versatile and embracing; it can be used in support of a range of pedagogies. It is not necessary for us to have a common vision, just a common desire to make best use of the technologies.

It is my firm belief that a future education system without the use of educational technology would be both poor and wrong. The only people to suffer in such a system would be the learners and the only people to benefit would be … well, really, I don’t think anyone would benefit!